Back to the Future Day is October 21st 2015. In the Hollywood film “Back to the Future II” (1989), Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) and Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) come to this day in a time machine. That is today! The film is being shown tonight at several cinemas in New York at 7.00pm.
#BackToTheFuture is now trending on Twitter. In the film there was no Twitter in 2015 or anything like it, even if they did have pizza hydrators.
Stuff they got right:
- The Chicago Cubs still had not won a World Series by 2014.
- large, flat-screen televisions.
- Miami has a national baseball team (though in our time it is called the Marlins, not the Gators).
- wearable technologies – though not (yet) boom boxes.
- 3-D movies.
- video telephone calls.
- slamball
- Pepsi, Pizza Hut and USA Today are still in business.
- people read printed newspapers. That probably did not seem like a prediction to the film-makers, but since in our time that can no longer be taken for granted, it is a prediction.
- a cola drink with vitamins. We know it as Diet Coke Plus. In the film it is called Pepsi Perfect.
- Cafe 80’s.
- computer voice recognition, but with mistakes. Dead on.
- drones.
- bionic arms.
- animated billboards.
Now possible, though not (yet) common:
- thumbprints to open doors and pay for things.
- using your television as a video telephone.
- no-hands video games.
- public pay phones with touch screens.
- digital binoculars.
- voice-activated lights.
Not way off:
- a female president
- talking on the telephone using special glasses.
- wearing clothes inside out as a youth fashion.
- hoverboards.
Wrong:
- pizza hydrators.
- time machines.
- flying cars.
- levitating signs.
- shoes that tie themselves.
- self-adjusting, self-drying jackets.
- The Chicago Cubs win the World Series.
- Princess Diana is Queen.
- Pepsi Perfect – except as an overpriced tie-in that is not like the
one in the film. - public pay phones are still common.
- people still commonly wear wristwatches.
- slamball is more important than baseball.
- Max Spielberg becomes a film director.
- the film “Jaws 19”. They did not even get up to Jaws 5.
- people having more than one fax machine in their home.
- prices written as 7$ instead of $7.
- mailboxes that can fax.
- USA Today has 3 billion readers.
- lawyers abolished.
Director Robert Zemeckis and writer Bob Gale are the ones who came up with this future. Since the film was a comedy, some stuff was put in just for laughs, like the Cubs winning the Series. And some of it they thought was unlikely by 2015, but was too cool to leave out, like flying cars and drones. Having seen the future shown in other films, they knew that whatever they came up with would be strangely off.
By far the biggest technological thing missing from their future is the Internet, mobile phones and the marriage of the two. In 1989, both the Internet and mobile phones were already in operation, though not yet common.
Doc Brown gets the last word:
“No one should know too much about their future.”
– Abagond, 2015.
Update (November 3rd 2016): The Chicago Cubs at long last win the World Series for the first time since 1908. “Back to the Future II” (1989) was just a year off.
See also:
- Twitter: #BackToTheFuture
- Futurepedia: 2015
- How daily life has changed, 1984-2014
- The future that kind of never was – how science fiction and futurists saw our time
- The future that was – the predictions that 1982 should have made about 2012.
- My past predictions for the future – my own predictions
- Stand on Zanzibar – another fictional future I lived to see: May 3rd 2010
- Blade Runner – a far darker future set in November 2019
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Time sure flies. I remember this movie as if it was yesterday. “Back to the Future Day” is actually my older cousin and aunt’s Birthday (50 and 55 years young, respectively).
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For a movie that depicted the near future better, I think “The Sixth Day” is nearly outdated – almost everything in that move is possible, except for everyone having cars that drive themselves. But that’s coming soon.
I think “I-Robot” and “The Fifth Element” (except for flying cars) are interesting futuristic movies as well.
One day our grandchildren will mourn on “The Hunger Games” or “The Giver Day” because I believe those books/ movies are closest to what our future is going to be.
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Hey, the Cubs could still become the 2015 World Series winner, so from 1985 that is just not far off.
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lmfao@ back to the future day. *face palms White people will make a day out of anything, i swear. hahahah
Abagondo…I can’t remember but maybe you can.
Did you see any black people in the movie back to the future? In 1985 or in 2015?
I think when they Mcfly went back to 1955 to make sure his dad and mother stayed together by fighting biff and the black soul singers were singing in the prom?
I can’t remember if it was the 1st Back to the future or not.
Forgive me, I’m old and i forget things. @ : o x ) >
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@Sondis
In part II, when they returned to the Biff-altered 1985, Marty entered his old bedroom and a black girl screamed while her angry black father came at Marty with a baseball bat. Otherwise, I think there was a black band member at the dance in 1955.
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A cousin of a certain Chuck Berry… the sad thing is that there are kids out there who only know Johnny B Goode from Back to the Future.
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Happy Back to the Future Day!
I was a kid in the 1980s so of course these movies were my favs. Even to this day I have such strong nostalgic feelings for them, as imperfect as it was (and yes, the whole mess with Johnny B Goode and a white guy inventing rock n’ roll).
I just can’t help liking the trilogy. There’s a screening of part one and two today and the whole trilogy on Sunday. I have free tickets so I might go on Sunday.
As for the Internet, I am amazed how almost nobody was able to predict it. Same goes for the sudden fall of communism.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwIHKanDSN8)
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@ Sondis
There were nine or so Black people in “Back to the Future II”:
2 in 2015: a police woman and, in a 3-D billboard, the owner of a hover conversion business.
4 in the alternate 1985: the Black family living in what was the McFly house in the non-alternate 1985.
3 in 1955: the soul band.
Everyone else was White as far as I can remember.
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Chuck Berry took the music Marty McFly learned from listening to Chuck Berry when Marty went back in time.
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“…Black to the Future?…”
This is great parody and perfectly illustrates what the “white gaze” omits or takes for granted. Past or Future somethings never real seem to change…?
https://www.rebelmouse.com/KNews/1416174230.html
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@Kwamla
Thanks for that. My computer speakers are not working, but I could get the parody. Yes, the more things change the more they ……. Great stuff.
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Abagond
Everyone else was White as far as I can remember.
What about the guy that worked in the diner in the 1950’s where Marty makes the throwaway comment about him becoming mayor?
Also the whole band was black in the first back to the future – they got in to fisticuffs with either Biff or his friends when someone almost let slip the ‘N’ word
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[…] Source: Back to the Future Day […]
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@ Omnipresent
I am only counting the Black people who appeared in II. The band appeared again in II. I counted them.
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@ Kwamla
Thank you for providing the correct version.
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Your welcome Abagond!
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There was also a black guy named “Goldie” who worked in a cafe in the fifies but becomes the mayor in the 80’s. Marty is the one who gives him the idea of being mayor and some white guy laughs as the idea of a Negro mayor and tells him to get back to work.
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ThatDeborahGirl
See the comment to me from abagond above
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Update: The Chicago Cubs at long last win the World Series for the first time since 1908. “Back to the Future II” (1989) was just a year off.
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